


Come the Spring

by Aeremaee



Series: Star Wars Stories [3]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 03:31:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12547868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeremaee/pseuds/Aeremaee
Summary: “Between you and me,” Chirrut said when they were sat down, “I think those boys will be very good for each other, with their shared… circumstances.”





	Come the Spring

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OnceUponAGalaxyFarFarAway](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceUponAGalaxyFarFarAway/gifts).



> Written as a gift to OnceUponAGalaxyFarFarAway, for the Star Wars Writing Allience Gift Exchange 2017. I hope you like it <3
> 
> Title from the Amorphis song with the same name.

“You got your lunch box and your phone?” Chirrut asked.

“Shouldn’t you be asking me if I’ve got my books and notes?” Cassian replied, grabbing some fruit from the bowl to add to his backpack.

“You’re a teenaged boy, right?” his uncle asked. “Aren’t those things the most important ones in life?”

“I guess you’ve got your priorities straight,” Cassian said with a shrug. “I’m not sure you’re doing this whole parenting thing right.”

Chirrut smiled, bittersweet. “As long as I’m doing it right by you, that’s good enough for me.”

Cassian pulled on his coat and took a deep breath before shouldering his pack and checking if he had his keys.

“Sure you don’t want me to walk you?” Chirrut said.

“Yeah, sure,” Cassian sighed. “I need to work on my image from day one, you know.”

“Ah, yes, of course. Hey, remember, it’s totally normal if today sucks a little, okay? New classmates, new subjects, new teachers…”

“It’s just fifth form, uncle Chirrut. It’s not like last year when it was a whole new school. And half my class is going to be the same as last year, anyway, okay? I’m going to be fine. Don’t get weepy on me.”

“I’ll endeavour to only cry in private,” Chirrut replied. “Eight weeks to go until the autumn break!”

“Thanks,” Cassian deadpanned. “See you tonight.”

 

“You good?” Baze asked.

“Another minute, please,” Bodhi said.

“Whatever you need, kid,” Baze said. “Run me through your week again?”

Bodhi gave him the side eye, but indulged him anyway.

“Until four every day except Thursday, then I have an extra period until quarter to five, and Wednesdays only until 12, obviously. Chamber orchestra and cello class on Saturday, from ten to half past eleven, same as last year.”

“Stress about the new school year in general? Or about the new class?”

Bodhi took a moment to consider.

“In general, I think,” he finally said. “No one in my own class picked the eight hours math, but I do know most of the kids in the other class at least a little, so I’m not too worried about that. It’s just the change in routine. I can deal with that.”

“Good. You know you can text me or call me any time, right?”

“Yep. I don’t feel like I’ll have to,” the boy said.

“You know I’m very proud of you, right?” Baze said. Bodhi swallowed and nodded a little. “Good,” Baze said again, warmly. “Time to go, kid.”

“See you tonight!” Bodhi said, and got out of the car. Baze watched him go inside the gate before he pulled away from the curb.

 

“Alright, people, I know some of you already know each other well and others don’t, but I trust you’re all going to be mature enough to not care about that for this class. I’ve seated you randomly, and the person next to you is going to be your lab partner for the rest of this year. You’ll do all the assignments together and prepare for each lab together. Come see me if there are any issues.”

She let them murmur about it for a few moments and Cassian sized up the boy sitting next to him. He looked familiar enough, even if they hadn’t shared a class before.

“You’re Bodhi, right? You were new here, too, last year, the principal took us on a tour together.”

“Right,” Bodhi said. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I remember your name? Cas…?”

“Cassian,” Cassian provided. “Don’t sweat it. You good with this arrangement?”

“I am if you are,” Bodhi smiled.

“Great,” Cassian said, and smiled back. “Hey, look, we don’t really need to do the prep work in school and I live five minutes away if you’d like to do the assignments somewhere more comfortable. My uncle works from home in case your parents care about that kinda stuff. He’s cool.”

“I’ll have to ask,” Bodhi said, trying to decide if he should say something about the parents thing, “but I think my foster dad will be okay with it.” It was out before he realised he’d said it, but then again Cassian had said he lived with his uncle.

“Your parents too, huh?” Cassian said softly.

“Yeah,” Bodhi said, and for the first time in over a year it didn’t tear him apart, didn’t net him the kind of thing people said because they didn’t know what to say. Instead Cassian looked at him like he knew exactly what Bodhi was feeling, and he probably did, at that.

“Sucks,” Cassian said.

“Yeah,” Bodhi replied, and they shared a weary smile.

 

“So we figured Thursdays would work best because Cassian doesn’t have practice and you work late so you could just come pick me up there when you’re done,” Bodhi said, already a little out of breath. Baze tried not to grin.

“Sounds good to me. They’re getting pretty serious with the sciences already, huh?”

“That’s why I picked the track in the first place,” Bodhi said.

“I’m really glad you had a good first day,” Baze said.

“Me, too,” Bodhi said.

“And seems your lab partner is all right,” Baze teased, and then wondered if Bodhi knew he was blushing.

“I think so, too,” the boy replied.

“Thank you for telling me about your day and for asking me if it was okay to go over there. If Cassian’s uncle doesn’t object to you coming by every week, it’s fine with me. Pretend I lectured you on best behaviour and good manners.”

“Consider me lectured,” Bodhi grinned.

“Go wash up for dinner,” Baze said, turning the stovetop down. “Spaghetti’s almost done.”

“Oh, my favourite!” Bodhi said, and ran off.

“I know,” Baze murmured. “You’re doing great, kid.”

 

“Can I bring someone over on Thursdays?” Cassian asked.

“Sure?” Chirrut replied. “You know your friends are always welcome, right?”

“Oh, yeah, I know, thanks, that’s not what I mean,” Cassian said, in between three bites of food.

“Ah, someone special, then? Has the time come? Should I prepare mentally and try and unearth the baby pictures?” Chirrut said, delighted.

“Very funny,” Cassian deadpanned, “yes, quite special, my assigned lab partner who will never leave me, or at least not until the year is over.”

“Oh, boring,” Chirrut huffed, making Cassian laugh. “Every Thursday, then?”

“Yeah, just for like an hour or so.”

Cassian was quiet for a while. Chirrut gave him time.

“His parents are dead, too,” the boy finally said.

_Someone special after all,_ Chirrut thought, and squeezed Cassian’s shoulder.

 

Thursday saw Baze pull up outside a charming semi-attached house in a sand coloured brick, with ivy growing up the side and wildflowers and a vegetable garden visible from the driveway. He liked it instantly. It looked like a home. It didn’t take long for the door to be opened when he rang, and the sight took his breath away for just a moment.

“Good evening,” he said once he managed to swallow around his dry throat. “I’m Baze Malbus, I’m here to pick up Bodhi?”

“Ah, hello! I’m Chirrut Imwé,” the man in the doorway said, offering his hand. Baze shook it. It was very warm in his. “It’s good to meet you. Please, come in! They’re just finishing up.”

Baze followed him inside. The interior was just as welcoming as the outside of the house had looked, and he couldn’t help but look over the man walking ahead of him. He was gorgeous.

He honestly didn’t know if this was a great development, or a problem.

The boys were in the kitchen, sitting side by side at the breakfast bar with a laptop and a mess of papers and all kinds of pens around them, talking animatedly.

“Well look at that,” Baze let slip.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Chirrut replied cheerfully.

Baze glanced aside and then took a more careful look. “Oh,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Chirrut said, and smiled at him, and Baze’s first inane thought was that at least he couldn’t see him flush at the sight of it. Gorgeous.

“Would you like something to drink? I think they might be a little while longer, I really have no idea what they’re talking about.”

“Yes, thanks. Some coffee, maybe?”

“Coming right up,” Chirrut smiled, and Baze’s eyes were glued to his lips.

They walked into the kitchen and the boys looked up.

“Baze!” Bodhi said, “Hi. Ten more minutes! This is Cassian.”

“Hey, kid. Hello, Cassian,” Baze said, smiling at the excitement in Bodhi’s voice. “Is it going well?”

“We make a good team,” Cassian said. “My grades’ll go up for sure.” Bodhi snorted and elbowed him. Cassian grinned widely. Baze’s heart swelled.

“Take all the time you need,” he said, and accepted the mug of coffee when Chirrut handed it to him.

“We’ll be in the sitting room if you need us,” the man said, and Baze followed him after one last look at Bodhi, who was focused entirely on Cassian.

“Between you and me,” Chirrut said when they were sat down, “I think those boys will be very good for each other, with their shared… circumstances.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so animated,” Baze said.

“Can I be very indelicate and ask how he ended up with you?”

“No remaining relatives, as I understood it,” Baze said. “Bodhi told me you’re Cassian’s uncle?”

“Yes. His mother was my sister. It’s been tough, but I think we’re mostly making it. I’m a psychologist, so they figured I wasn’t entirely unprepared, but that was a load of bollocks.”

“You’re never prepared,” Baze agreed. “I’ve had a few kids in longer care before Bodhi, and it doesn’t matter how much knowledge or experience you have. You’re never really prepared.”

“They can do some healing together,” Chirrut smiled. Baze sipped his drink to have something other to do than stare.

They sat for a while and listened to their boys back in the kitchen.

“Would you guys like to stay for dinner?” Chirrut asked.

 

After a few weeks, he didn’t even ask anymore, and simply set the table for four come Thursday.

 

“Can I go to Cassian’s game next Sunday?” Bodhi asked over dinner one Tuesday.

Baze looked up, but Bodhi was still intent on his plate. He grinned.

“Sure, kid. Do you need a ride?”

“No, that’s cool, we’re biking over together.”

Baze tried not to gloat.

 

_Quick study and not afraid to ask for clarification if he doesn’t understand something. Languages could do with a little more studying. Answers when called on but otherwise very quiet in class, unless seated next to Cassian Andor. Keep up the good work!_

_Active pupil in class, it’s very nice to have you! Popular with his classmates because he’s someone they can count on. Doing well in most of his classes, although we do suggest some extra work for math._

Chirrut can’t put his finger on when exactly it happened, but they’d started texting all the time. About practical stuff first or about the boys, but then about work and the small everyday things, and then about simply everything. It was always just a little jarring to hear Baze’s texts read out by the slightly stilted women’s voice his phone used instead of Baze’s warm, deep voice. He caught himself trying to imagine how it would sound if Baze were actually saying them to him. It did something to his stomach.

_Reading this great book. I think you’ll like it, too._

_You’ll have to read it to me._

He’d meant it to be another blind joke, but then the thought of it set him on fire, of Baze’s tongue and lips around the syllables of a book full of words and that voice rumbling through the sentences, and he realised that maybe that had been a little flirty.

_I might just have to_ , came the reply, and Chirrut didn’t know what to do with himself for the rest of the day.

 

“Hey, Baze, will you bring my cello with you tomorrow? Cassian wants to hear me play.”

Baze didn’t even try to hide his dumbfounded look at that. The boy blushed scarlet all the way into his hair and Baze shook himself.

“Of course I will,” he said. “I’m really proud of you, kid. You don’t have to play where Chirrut and I can hear you if you don’t want to, you can ask Cassian over on a Wednesday afternoon if Chirrut agrees with you two wreaking havoc unchecked.”

Somehow Bodhi blushed even deeper.

_Well, what do you know,_ Baze thought.

“I think I’d like that better, actually,” Bodhi managed.

“Good,” Baze said.

 

_You may be enjoying the quiet now that you have the house to yourself for a week, but do you feel like coming to dinner on Thursday, anyway?_

_I’ll bring dessert._

 

They didn’t make it to dessert.

Something felt different right away. Baze came inside and stepped into Chirrut’s space closer than he usually did, rumbled a low hello almost into his ear, and it left Chirrut a little breathless, a little hot all over, trailing into the house behind Baze like he was being pulled along.

In a fit of something wild, Chirrut had set the table for them on the corner instead of on either end of the table, like they usually sat, with Bodhi and Cassian next to each other between them. They’d barely started eating when Baze slid his foot forward and pressed his shin into Chirrut’s calf, and left it there. Butterflies set of in Chirrut’s stomach and he could barely manage to keep up his end of the conversation.

It wasn’t tension in the air so much as it was anticipation.

Baze helped him clear the table and they got into each other’s way a little bit, intimately aware of each other in that way that happened when you really wanted to touch someone and weren’t sure if you could, until Chirrut went to take Baze’s dish of tiramisu out of the fridge and Baze grabbed his hands, turned him to face each other.

“Leave it,” he whispered, and let go of Chirrut’s hands to cup his jaw with both of his own, ran his right thumb over Chirrut’s lower lip. “Can I?..”

“Yeah,” Chirrut breathed, and then Baze’s lips were on his.

Baze’s mouth still tasted a little like chili, hot and warm and exactly like Chirrut had thought it would. He bit at Baze’s lower lip, surrendering to that urge he’d had since the beginning, wild with it, starving for something he hadn’t even realised he was hungry for. Baze met him kiss for kiss, walking him back into the kitchen counter and lifting him onto it, dug his fingers into the meat of Chirrut’s ass, crowded between his legs to press their hips together.

Chirrut swallowed a moan and rolled his hips into Baze’s, who nuzzled his jaw and licked up his neck.

“Don’t hold back,” he rumbled. “I want to hear you,” and bit down, just a little, over Chirrut’s pulse.

“Gods, Baze,” Chirrut breathed, clinging to the other man’s back and dragging his nails across his shoulders.

“Tell me if it’s too fast, tell me if you need me to stop,” Baze said, sounding so wrecked, “I’ve been thinking about this since probably the second time we met.”

“Don’t you dare stop,” Chirrut growled, and pulled him back in. “You have no idea what your voice has been doing to me right from the start.”

Baze laughed in a way that went straight to Chirrut’s dick. “Want me to tell you about all the things I’ve been thinking about?”

“All night long while you do them,” Chirrut heard himself reply, and Baze rumbled that laugh again and nibbled up his jaw to his ear.

“That can be arranged,” he growled.

 

When Cassian dropped into the seat next to him, almost all the way to the back of the bus, Bodhi’s heart fluttered. When he turned _that_ grin on him, his whole body hitched along with his breath.

“I feel like I haven’t seen you at all during this trip, did you enjoy it at least a little?” Cassian said.

“It was okay,” Bodhi said, “not as cringy as I thought it was going to be with all the forced team building stuff. You?”

“Same,” Cassian said, “the adventure trial was pretty cool, though, I liked that a lot.”

“You got a lot of kids across who might not have made it, _that_ was pretty cool,” Bodhi replied, blushing a little at how his voice came out.

“It’s no fun falling in,” Cassian simply said. “You managed it quite well without any help, don’t think I didn’t notice,” he teased.

Bodhi allowed himself one moment to bask in the feeling Cassian’s praise gave him.

“You know you don’t have to sit with me if you’d rather sit somewhere else, right?” He tried not to mind how his voice came out on that sentence.

A soft look came over Cassian’s face. “You know you’re not just my classmate, or my lab partner, or my math tutor, right? I don’t tell anyone else half the things I tell you. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.”

Bodhi looked at him and hoped his face said everything he couldn’t possible manage to find words for. “I feel the same,” he finally stammered, a little lamely he felt, but the way Cassian smiled made him feel so warm that maybe he’d managed after all.

“You can lean on me if you want to sleep a little on the way back,” he said, and made himself comfortable.

Bodhi rested himself against Cassian’s side, head on his shoulder, and breathed him in. Instantly something settled in him and he sighed in relief.

“I missed you, too,” Cassian whispered, and slowly and carefully put his cheek on Bodhi’s head, wrapped his fingers around his hand.

Heart hammering, Bodhi linked their fingers together and squeezed, just a little. They didn’t move for the rest of the ride home. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](%E2%80%9Daeremaee.tumblr.com%E2%80%9D)


End file.
